Businessman James Howard makes no bones about his less-than-perfect start in life.
The managing director of Brighouse-based Yorkshire Payments says, bluntly: “I was born in Wolverhampton, which was voted the fifth worst city in the world by the Lonely Planet guide!
“I grew up on a big council estate and I went to the local comprehensive.
“I wasn’t very academic. I don’t have any GCSEs and I only wanted to be at school to cause mischief and make people laugh. I was written off by my teachers and told to go to college to do a travel and tourism course.”
But James’ real love was technology. “I was fascinated by gadgets and how they worked,” he says. “This was in the 1990s and the mobile phone boom.
“I saw a Saturday job advertised in a mobile phone shop. I was 16 at the time. I went for the job interview and I wasn’t even wearing a tie. I didn’t know what dressing ‘smart’ was.
“I remember going for the interview and it was a shambles, but the store manager asked if I wanted the job and I said ‘yes’. I had a bit of banter and personality. I was a local lad and knew everyone in town.”
Says James: “I started a few weeks after the interview and I was on £7,000 a year before commission.
“I was just a lackey because there were more experienced sales advisers in the store who had been in the industry for years.
“I was just happy to be there. I started to develop fantastic skill sets. I have a brain like a sponge and I was picking things up quickly. I was there for about four years and rose through various positions to become store manager and senior sales adviser. We broke lots of sales records.”
He also learned a valuable lesson about people. “The manager used to judge by the appearance of people who came into the store whether they would buy anything. In one case, he told me to get rid of a bloke who ended up buying a mobile phone on a two-year contract with insurance and earning me £140 commission.
“What gives me the right to judge someone? I quickly learned not to judge people on what they looked like, where they were from or how old they were.”
Aged 20, James went on to work for BSkyB selling Sky packages at its store in Wolverhampton – and “destroyed” all the targets set for him “by not judging people and by being able to talk to people”.
He moved into field sales at the age of 23 selling Sky into pubs, restaurants, night clubs and offices.
A change of direction took him into the payments industry.
“It was a complete breath of fresh air,” says James.
“It was the reason I decided to go self-employed. I don’t know why. I had this cocky ‘I can do it’ mindset. I freelanced for a number of different payment providers for many years.”
James met his wife Julie, who hails from Bradford, during a holiday in the Caribbean. The couple settled in Northowram in 2012 at a time when James was feeling the pinch. “I moved there with nothing,” he says.
“I’d spent everything I earned. I had a negative equity property and no savings. I walked down to the Queen Victoria pub – it’s still my local – and started doing a bit of networking.
“I started making some contacts, I got introduced to business networking groups like BNI and the Last Friday Club in Halifax and things just snowballed.”
James started his one-man business from an anonymous office at the back of a printer’s merchants – armed only with a table, a laptop and a phone line. He registered the name Yorkshire Payments in 2013.
With the backing of a silent partner, it now occupies well-presented offices at Thornhill Brigg Mills in Brighouse and provides card processing services for sole traders and SMEs and large companies.
The firm provides the hardware, the software, customer support and technical support.
It now employs 16 staff covering administration, sales, finance and IT while James is joined in heading the business by co-directors Mark Greenwood, formerly of Lloyds Banking Group, who handles operational matters, and Mark Prince, whose forte is strategy and finance.
It is licensed directly with Visa and Mastercard and competes with the likes of HSBC and Barclays as well as a number of other independents based in London.
James is proud of the firm’s Yorkshire roots. “Yorkshire itself is a brand,” he says. “It’s not just a region. The Yorkshire economy grew more than the whole of the French economy last year and I’m so proud that my business is based here.”
James also takes a hands-on approach. On the day of our interview, he says: “This morning, I opened up, emptied and cleaned out the coffee machine. I’m also the last to leave.”
But he says: “Because we are a new business, sales is the lifeblood of the business.
“We can’t compete with Barclays and HSBC in terms of marketing budgets. We don’t have a branch on every street corner to advertise our services. But we are pro-active, and ethical. It’s all about service. Everything is in-house and there’s no shipping things out to foreign call centres.
“We believe the brand is going to grow. We have two apprentices currently and we are seeking to create another apprenticeship.”
James, who married Julie last December, admits: “I am still the most unprofessional, immature individual in the office at times. We have a laugh and a bit of banter and it’s a great team.
“I still love technology and play video games – but we’re a professional business aiming to put the customer first.”
James says he still sees some of thre people he knew on the estate during what he calls a difficult childhood. “My upbringing wasn’t the best,” he says.
Among the good causes Yorkshire Payments tries to support is homeless charity Simon on the Streets. James and members of staff took part in a sleep out in front of the John Smith’s Stadium to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people.
“There are people who may have had a good education, but they have had a bit of bad luck or drugs have taken over their lives,” he says. “We shouldn’t write them off.”
Even if they’re a shabby dresser without a tie.
Role: Managing director
Age: 30
Family: Married to Julie
Holidays: We will be going to France this summer. I also enjoy camping at Flamborough Head with a group of friends
First job: I was a pot washer at Dunstall racecourse, Doncaster. I did it to raise enough money to buy a video recorder
Best thing about the job? Working with the team here. I love coming into the office and hearing what everyone’s been up to. I love winning new customers and managing existing customers because I’m still a salesman by trade!
Worst thing about the job? Paperwork and industry politics
Business tip: Never judge a book by its cover. Just because someone wears a Primark coat doesn’t mean they’ve no money to spend – and If someone’s wearing an Alex McQueen shirt, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve masses of cash.
Work: Payment card solutions
Site: Thornhill Brigg Mills, Brighouse
Phone: 01422 323785
Email: info@yorkshirepayments.com
